International Potluck Anyone?

An International Dinner.  Have you tried this?  We've done it once before and it worked nicely.  I've even done it for a work function and it was really interesting because everyone's background is so different.  If you haven't heard of doing something like this before, let me explain: it's a potluck dinner where the dish you bring MUST be a traditional ethnic dish reflecting either your or your family's ancestry.  If your great-great-great-grandfather was Scottish, you could bring haggis for example.

In our family, my Dad is Dutch, my mother, Danish.  However, when you go backwards through the line, both families are peppered with other countries such as Germany and France.  Since that only really opens up four countries, I rely on the Greek heritage of my spouse to provide some Mediterranian flare to the dinner.  I'm even lucky enough to have a Greek cookbook.

But there is such a thing as too many choices.  It's got tons of recipes!  Appetizers, soups, salads, entrees, side dishes, garnish, cookies, cakes, pastries, syrups, condiments... it's mind boggling.  What am I going to make?  And it's laid out in the strangest way.  I'm used to cookbooks that have categories like, "Soups and Salads" or "Main Dishes".  This is separated out into "Foods from the Sea" etc.  A lot of it is lamb, fish, eggplant, zucchini, spinach - what might be considered "strange".  So I've decided that mine has to be a optional dish.  Something that isn't a main course, but still contributes like an appetizer or dessert.

So my choices are spanakopeta or dolmadakia if I'm doing an appetizer or bakalava or galatoboureko if I'm doing dessert.  I've never made any of these, but we shall see.  I've put the choice to the hostess, let's see what she picks!